Byblos is the oldest city in the world, having been continuously inhabited since the 3rd millenium BC. Today's Beirut still has for skeleton the axis established by the Romans before the birth of Christ. When the National Museum was built in 1930, the theme chosen was the architecture of an Egyptian temple with a portico of closed papyrus columns. These are but a few examples of the important mark left by all the populations of Antiquity on our country.
For our tour of the antique sites of Lebanon, I will start with the most extraordinary of all: the Phoenician complex in Baalbek.
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Above: We climb a fallen column on the site of the temple. Please note its massiveness!
Right: Another view of the remaining columns of the temple of Baal-Jupiter. These are the largest columns ever erected in history.
Left: The complex seen from the city of Baalbek.
Above: This stone lies in a quarry from which it was never removed. It is known as Hajar el 7ebla, "the pregnant stone", and is the largest stone ever carved by man. The stomes used for the foundations of the temple are barely smaller.
Above: The Roman temple of Faqra is set among very peculiar rock formations. It was destroyed by the great earthquake of 551 AD.
Above: The area of Nee7a near Zahle sports two Roman temples set a couple of kilometres apart from each other. Back then processions would take place from the first temple, down beyond the valley you see on the picture, to the second one where I took this shot from. Nowadays one can hike across fields of apple trees from the one to the other.
Right: Inside the first temple, we found the staircase that led to the no longer existing upper floor.
Left and above: Enjoying the old stones in both temples.
Right: To the very south of the country, the Roman site in Tyr. Lebanon was to the Roman empire what Miami is to the USA now, hence the large number of constructions targeted towards entertainment.
